Race Report #9 - 16 April 2023

Thanks to today's race sponsors hosted by Stitches at Market Street Woolgoolga.  Get along and see Jenny and the team for all your clothing (school, dancing, etc) and stitching and repair needs.  Also to the Happy Frog for providing fruit and muesli, and the Moonee Beach Tavern for prize give-aways.  Let's all continue to support our terrific sponsors.   
Our race wouldn’t happen without our volunteers and to everyone that put their hand up - thank you.  Volunteers of the week goes to Mark Griffiths for stepping in to do the start and organise the muesli/fruit platter and Wendy Maley for her exceptional hand signalling in the car park area!  And to Mick Booth and Pete Roberts for timing and Marg Roberts for keeping the clock turning during the morning.   
Welcome back to the women having another go after the Women’s Tri - Kathleen Corinth, Tess Hawkins, Brooke Fagerstrom, Elize Strydom and Annabelle Swainston (apologies if I missed anyone) backing up from the last event and our Balmoral Tri Club visitors.
So it was back to our standard Enticer/Sprint and Aquabike format for today’s event with a field of 38 across both distances.  With an honest swim leg and steady northerly making for a grinding aero ride up Hogbin Drive, conditions were overall really good.   7 turned out in the Enticer with the fastest time going to Hudson Barry in 34:02, second to brother Titan in 38:03 with third place to Marg Roberts in 45:37.    
In the long distance, fastest female in 1:19:36 was Club President Julie Whitton, second place to ever improving Rainee Herron in 1:20:23 while Andrea Burth rounded out third in 1:20:56.   In our male’s Sprint event, Travis Sheilds smashed out a very good time in 1:00:51 followed by Michael Brennan in 1:08:16 and Chris Hodge coming back from a leg injury third in 1:09:57.  Congratulations to all for some solid racing. 
Full results can be found at http://www.coffstri.com/results.html.   For those using Strava check out this race report that can also be found there.   If you are not receiving Emails from the Club you can subscribe through the link on the web site under Media/News found here at - https://coffstri.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=736038ad86673e57f2d444b18&id=e089333abe
Our final event of the season is a Long Course Option with Enticer and Aquabike on 30 April.   We still need a few more volunteers to fill the roster so please reach out if you haven’t yet volunteered to Mark Kirstein or go to the Dutyman web site to log on.  
On other news Coffs is currently sitting in second place and it would be awesome to see a crew head up to the next event to take on a Sprint or Olympic level (either distance for Club points) at Byron Bay on Saturday 13 May 2023.  The Sprint race is part of the NSW Championships.  And the Club Championships (1km swim/ 27km bike/ 8km run) is on Saturday 27 May 2023 to be held from Forster Main Beach. Using a revamped bike and run course, it is being hosted by Tri NSW and run by H Events.  The Club has booked 50 accommodation beds that are sponsored and will include two nights and food and drinks prior to Presentation on Saturday night. After the presentation we hit the dance floor!  So put your name down for this one as a great end of season celebration - Here is the link to  Sticky Tickets  to sign up.  Get on as soon as possible to confirm your place. 
Thanks to everyone that completed the survey for the Club’s Strategic Business Plan.  We had a total of 25 responses that have been collated and will be discussed at the next Club Committee meeting with a view to inform the Strategic Plan. This is tentatively timetabled to be presented to the Annual General Meeting/Presentation to be held in June 2023. 
Catch you at the next event on the 30 April!  In the meantime, train safe! 
Peter Birch, Race Director